Mayor Rob Ford files official return notice, to be back June 30

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford plans to return to city hall on June 30. (The Canadian Press / File)

TORONTO — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford plans to return to city hall on June 30, according to a letter he sent to the city clerk’s office.

The letter says he will return to resume his duties as mayor “in the later portion of the afternoon.”

Ford asked the clerk to change back his office locks by 1 p.m.

The embattled mayor has been in rehab since announcing on April 30 he was seeking help for an alcohol problem, just as new allegations of substance abuse surfaced in several published reports.

Ford has been faced with allegations of drug use since May 2013, when the Toronto Star and the U.S. website Gawker reported seeing a video that appeared to show him smoking crack cocaine.

Months later, Ford admitted to trying the drug while in one of his “drunken stupors” and to using drugs while in office.

That led council to strip him of most of his mayoral duties.

Though the mayor then publicly swore off alcohol, he was later forced to admit to drinking after another videotaped incident in which he used Jamaican swear words and slagged the city’s chief of police.

The letter announcing Ford’s return is dated June 2, but the clerk did not receive the letter until Monday, City of Toronto spokesperson Jackie DeSouza said in an email.